1. The Progressive Era

3. The Gilded Age Gilded age lasted from 1870s-1890s
Two concerns shaped politics during the Gilded Age
Americans feared that industrialists were enriching themselves at the expense of the public
Belief that the government was corrupt and dishonest

4. Reforming the Gilded Age
Key source of corruption was the spoils system
The practice of rewarding political supporters with jobs

7. Reforming the Gilded Age
1883 President Chester A. Arthur signed the Pendleton Act in order to end the spoils system
Created the civil service

8. Reforming the Gilded Age
Big business exerted strong influence over politics
Americans wanted to limit the power of big business

9. Reforming the Gilded Age
Interstates Commerce Act-1887
Sherman Antitrust Act-1890
Stopped businesses from trying to limit or destroy competition (end monopolies)

10. Corruption in the Cities
Politicians would accept money to award city jobs to friends (building roads, collecting garbage, expanding sewers)

11. Corruption in the Cities
Boss Tweed carried corruption to new extremes in the 1860s and 1870s
Cheated NYC out of more than $100 million
Journalists exposed Tweed’s crimes through political cartoons

16. Progressives
Progressives were a diverse group of reformers united by a belief in the public interest, or the good of all people

18. Progressives
States instituted many reforms to put more power in the hands of voters
Recall
Initiative

19. Progressives Two Constitutional Amendments
16th-Congress has the power to pass income tax laws
17th direct election of senators

20. Progressives Muckrakers
Targeted big business in order to force changes
Jacob Riis-How the Other Half Lives
Upton Sinclair-The Jungle

23. Progressive Era 1906 Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act
Allowed closer inspection of meatpacking houses
Stopped drug companies from making false claims about medicines and adding harmful chemicals to canned foods
Required food and drug makers to list all ingredients to packages

25. First Progressive President
Theodore Roosevelt
Gained reputation as a trustbuster
Started lawsuits to break up trust and monopolies like Northern Securities, American Tobacco Company, and Standard Oil

26. First Progressive President
1902-Pennsylvania coal miners went on strike for better pay and shorter work hours
Roosevelt threatened to send in troops to run the mines, which forced the mine owners to negotiate with the union
First President ever to side with strikers

27. First Progressive President
Roosevelt passed legislation dealing with conservation
U.S. Forest Service was formed in 1905
Created national parks
Yosemite National Park
Yellow Stone Park

29. Progressive Era William Taft won election of 1908
Passed a lot of Progressive Legislation
New safety rules for mines
Government workers started an 8 hour work day
Created new child labor laws

30. Election of 1912

32. Wilson and the New Freedom
Wilson created the Federal Trade Commission to stop unfair business practices
Passed Clayton Antitrust Act

34. Women Win the Vote
Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 started an organized women’s rights movement in the United States
Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

36. Women Win the Vote
In the early 1900s support for women’s suffrage grew
Women were in the workforce and demanded a say in making laws

37. Women Win the Vote Strategies
Carrie Chapman Catt wanted to win suffrage state by state.
Alice Paul took a more forceful approach and wanted a national amendment passed

49. Women Win the Vote
1919 Congress passed the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote

50. New Opportunities for Women
Women had more opportunity to achieve a higher education (by 1900 the nation had 1,000 women lawyers and 7,000 women doctors)
Started new clubs and entered new fields of work (social work)

51. Crusade Against Alcohol

52. Crusade Against Alcohol
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was formed in 1874 and led by Frances Willard
Group wanted to ban the sale of liquor and close all saloons

53. Crusade Against Alcohol
In 1919 temperance leaders succeeded in getting Congress to pass the 18th Amendment
The amendment enforced prohibition

63. Struggles for Justice African Americans
Faced discrimination in the North as well as in the South
Landlords refused to rent homes in white areas, they were restricted to the worst housing, and received the poorest jobs

64. Struggles for Justice Booker T. Washington
Founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama
School offered training in industrial and agricultural skills
Believed African Americans needed to learn trades and gradually move up in society

66. Struggles for Justices
W.E.B. Du Bois
Urged African Americans to fight discrimination rather than submit to it
Created the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Tried to achieve equal rights for African Americans

68. Struggles for Justices
Lynching

69. Struggles for Justices
Successes
George Washington Carver discovered new uses for crops in the south to help feed families (peanuts, soy beans, sweet potatoes)
Sarah Walker became the first American woman to earn more than $1 million

72. Struggles for Justices
Mexican Americans
Also faced legal segregation
Paid less than white workers and were forced to live in separate areas and attended different schools

73. Struggles for Justice Asian Americans
Face discrimination in the United States
U.S. wanted to stop immigrants from coming in from Asia
1906-San Francisco forced all Asian students to attend separate schools.
Japan took this as an insult and the issue threatened to cause in international crisis

74. Struggles for Justice Gentlemen’s Agreement
Roosevelt and Japan agreed that Japan would stop workers from going to the U.S. and the U.S. would allow Japanese women to join their husbands in the U.S.

75. Struggles for Justice Religious Minorities
Catholics, Jews and other religions faced prejudice

76. Anti-Semitism Leo Frank
A Jewish man that was falsely accused of murdering a young girl. His conviction was overturned and he was the lynched